Wanderings – The Far Side of the World

One of my closest friends will be traveling to Macau China next month. He’ll be there for about three weeks on business. He told me that it will take him about 36 hours to get there.

Ouch. That’s a long time to be in an airplane.

As he told me this I fired up the latest edition of Google Earth and brought up some pictures.

“Whoa!” I said, “That’s cool.”

“What?” he asked.

“Google Earth has some nice points of interest – wait ‘till you see the pictures!”

“Pictures – you mean you see pictures of Macau?” he asked.

“Sure. ‘Panorimo’ is a part of the Google Earth experience my good man – WHOA!”

“Whoa what?”

“You’ve gotta see this temple when your there. It’s the kind of place that Indiana Jones would go to meet Lara Croft for drinks.”

“And that’s all on Google Earth?”

“Yes.”

I revisit this little exchange, Gentle Reader, to plug Google Earth. I don’t receive dime one and in the back of my paranoid mind know that Google will one day make a bid to rule the world through various nefarious techniques of mind control and subjugation BUT I gotta tell you, Google Earth is the bees knees. It’s the real deal. I’ve talked about the joys of Google Earth before but I thought I’d drag my fingers across my Logitech keyboard once more to extol its virtues. If you would like to check it out slide on over to "Evil Chicken's Favorite Places", and click on the link.

My friend has been sent around the world; Las Vegas, Bali, Dubai, India and now Macau China and I was able to see the hotel that he’s gonna be staying at from the comfort of my computer room. I can now live vicariously through others with just a few picked keys and some clicks from my mouse.

I’m excited for my friend for the adventure of travel, the thrill of discovery and, now, for the fact that he’s gonna be loading Google Earth onto his new laptop. He’s gonna love it and I’m gonna love hearing all about his exploits on the Far Side of the World.

Stay safe Dave, you’re in my prayers. Don’t forget to send me a postcard; for some reason, I’ve got a thing for them these days.

Stay safe, Bro.

The Joys of Google Earth

I’ve been spending a lot of time playing around on Google Earth recently – do you know what I mean? If you’ve loaded the free program then you do; if you don’t know what it is or if you haven’t had the time to fire it up then please take heed. You’re about to fall in love with geography.

…No – Really…

Download the free version here: http://earth.google.com/.

Wikipedia (my favorite second brain) states this; “Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole, Inc. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS (geographic information system) 3D globe.”

Install the program and explore. Start with familiar territory and move onto the fun stuff. Type in your address and fly in – you’ll be impressed. Take a look around the neighborhood and put those nagging feelings that there is no such thing as privacy aside and look at the bright shinny thing!

Oh Gentle Reader, what a bright and shinny thing this program is. The past three days I’ve been to dozens of places around the globe. Where? Well, I’ve been to the Valley of the Ten Peaks, Alberta Canada, Banff National Park, Alberta Canada; Peggy’s Cove, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada; Urqhart Castle, torre, Loch Ness, United Kingdom; Cherry Plain State Park, NY; Muckle Flugga, UK’s most northerly headland and, of course, Area 51, Uninc Nye County, Nevada.

…But hey, that’s just me. The program actually has some wonderful suggestions on where to take tours under the “Sightseeing” folder. They’ve got Disneyworld, the White House, the Eiffel Tower, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Imperial Palace in China and a bunch of others.

Mother Hen says that I’ve become downright voyeuristic ...like she didn’t know that already.

The world is now your playground, Gentle Reader; happy exploring!